SOME CRANDALL TRIVIA!

Items regarding the surname "CRANDALL" ... Compiled by: Earl P. Crandall, Hudson, NY; John K. Crandall, Fort Lee, NJ, Douglas E. Crandall of Williamsville, NY; and David E Crandall Jr, Charlestown RI.

Here are some interesting {I hope ...} trivia items about the CRANDALL surname —

  • Did you know that there was a mineral named CRANDALLITE"?

    It is a very soft mineral, a calcium, aluminum, phosphorus hydrate.

  • There is also a "stonecutter's tool" called a crandall — "... a kind of hammer having a hand formed of a group of transverse, pointed plates, or oftener, steel bars, used for dressing a soft stone."


  • AMERICAN GEOGRAPHIC PLACE NAMES — called "CRANDALL" in: Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming ... Not to mention a village of "Crandall Corners" in the town of Easton, Washington Co., New York!!

    In the 12 Oct 1995 issue of the Albany, NY "Times-Union", there is a photograph of a cemetery on "Crandall Road" in the town of Grafton, Rensselaer Co., NY.

  • The swimming pool at West Point Military Academy in Ossining, NY is named for a Crandall.

  • The Crandall Library and two parks in Glenns Falls, NY were established in the 1890's by the philanthropist, Henry Crandall.

  • In the 1830's Prudence Crandall opened the first "academy of higher education for young ladies and misses of 'color'" in Canterbury, Connecticut; it was the subject of a 1991 T-V special starring Mare Winningham entitled "She Stood Alone". Prudence was born in Hopkinton, Rhode Island.

  • The New York Journal-American reported on 1 Jun 1955 that Wilmot ("Poker Bill") Crandall, 104, of Klamath Falls, OR attributed his longevity to a diet that included plenty of venison and bear meat.

  • Many Crandalls presently found in the northeastern parts of Canada are the descendants of CRANDALL Loyalists who fled to Canada during the American Revolution.

  • Lee CRANDALL was considered the world's foremost expert on animal care and exhibition in 1952 when he retired as the general curator of the New York Zoological Society.

  • Robert L. Crandall is the former president and CEO of American Airlines.

  • Ralph J. Crandall is the current executive director of the New England Historical & Genealogical Society in Boston, MA.

  • THE "CRANDALL TYPEWRITER"

    *Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute*


    On p 436 of the Elder John Crandall 1949 genealogy by John Cortland Crandall, one can find the entry for #2313, Lucien Stephen CRANDALL, born in Broome Co., NY 4 May 1844 and died aft1910, inventer of the CRANDALL Typewriter.

    Lucien S.8 Crandall's lineage is: William Pierce7 Crandall, Daniel6, Christopher5, Peter4,3, John2, Elder John1 CRANDALL of Rhode Island.

    There was an article about Lucien and his typewriter published in the Collectibles Quarterly in Jan/Feb 1984, and this article was used in our family newsletter in the Fall 1993 issue.

    Recently, one of our new members, Douglas E. Crandall (#174) of Williamsville, NY, contacted me and mentioned that one of Lucien's typewriters was at the Smithsonian Institute, and he has provided me with further information, forwarded to him by the Smithsonian, from a book by Michael H. Adler entitled The Writing Machine, which describes the Crandall Typewriter on pp 262-263.

    "This was the first type-sleeve machine and was patented in 1879 (Great Britain) and 1881 (US) by Lucien Stephen Crandall; it was one of a number of instruments designed by this pioneer typewriter inventor. Manufacturer was the Crandall Machine Co. of Groton, N.Y. The type-sleeve had six circles of characters around it and was mounted obliquely horizontal on the first model and vertical on the two subsequent models. Depression of a key rotated it and moved it along its axis to select the corresponding letter, bringing it down to the platen and locking it by engaging a pin in a hole. Printing by ribbon ... "

    Here it is, in an old ad!

    To go and learn more about this typewriter, click on the little typewriter!

  • The 1993 Paramount Productions cartoon of "Betty Boop" as "Snow White" with the music of Cab Calloway playing St. James Infirmary credited one Roland C. Crandall as animator. He also did some early Popeye cartoons!

  • The Encyclopedia of New York City, p 1194, states, "After moving to New York City from Rhode Island several members of the CRANDALL family emerged as the city's most prominent toymakers between 1845 and 1915. The most renowned was Jesse A. Crandall, who, in a shop at 73 Fulton St., made wooden hobby horses, sleds, and early bicycles called velocipedes.

    He was the son of Benjamin Potter Crandall (see pp 343-344 of the JCC 1949 Crandall genealogy

  • CRANDALL Knives

    The company that eventually became the Crandall Cutlery Company of Bradford, PA, had its start in Little Valley, NY. There is little known of the company started by Ira Clinton Crandall (1823-1904), other than it "moved" to his son, James Etsel Crandall (1850-1917) and then James’ son, Herbert Etsel Crandall (1876-1922), who gave the company its "last" name. As it turns out, there were several cutlery companies in that same general area (western NY, along the PA border), the largest and most powerful of which was W. R. Case & Sons Cutlery in Bradford. William Russell Case wanted all the cutlery business of that area, and was quite a "cut-throat" businessman of the time. If he could not buy a competitor outright, he made sure that his children married into the family! Through this method he "acquired" the Platts Cutlery Company, the Crandall Cutlery Company, the Unique Knife Company, and the Robinson Knife Company! Case’s daughter, Theresa, married Herbert Etsel Crandall, and W.R. Case bought out the Crandall Cutlery Company in 1911. Original CCCo. knives are a keepsake — so look to see if you have one. They frequently come up at auction on the Internet at such places as E-Bay. However, you have to watch carefully to make sure that you’re not bidding on a repro! After Wm. Russell Case died, the Case Cutlery Co. ended up in the hands of a Crandall again, Rhea (Crandall) Osborne O’Kain (b ~1900), his granddaughter. There were no male heirs, hence it passed on to her in the mid-50s. She and her husband and her son were in charge until about 1973. Over the years there were many other businesses bought out by the Case Co., but in 1989 Case was bought out by Smoky Mountain Knife Works of TN. Smoky Mountain sold the company to Zippo of Bradford, PA, and it is Zippo that still owns it. References: John Cortland Crandall: "Elder John Crandall of Rhode Island ... "; private; New Woodstock, NY; 1949; pp 224, 429-30, 564. Giles, James S.: "The First 100 Years (A Pictorial and Historical Review of W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery)"; Smokey Mountain Knife Works; Sevierville, TN; Oct 1989; pp 2, 18, 72



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